1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for vending work objects and, more particularly, to such an apparatus wherein its internal storage area can be so configured as to allocate the space available to virtually any combination of work objects for vending more closely to approximate an allocation of storage space to correspond to the volume of sales for each than has heretofore been possible, which achieves this objective without a concomitant increase in either the size or the cost of the apparatus over prior art vending devices and which otherwise possesses a facility for assembly, service and repair not heretofore achieved in the art.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The design, manufacture, operation and servicing of vending machines presents a myriad of considerations which are unique to the industry. A primary consideration is the fact that any commercially successful vending machine must offer a plurality of selections from a fixed storage area. Conversely, it is inherently the case that where multiple selections are available, the quantities of each selection vended during any given period are disproportionate to each other, although in generally predictable percentages. In order most efficiently to use the available storage space within vending machines, it is known to apportion storage space within the storage area in general accordance with the known percentages of sales volume for the given commodities involved. This is known within the industry as assigning "space to sales."
While such design considerations constituted an improvement over the art, problems associated with the disproportionate sale of commodities persist. For example, the percentages of the disproportionate sales are only generally predictable. In addition, the percentages of disproportionate sales may vary substantially from environment to environment. Thus, the percentages for given commodities incident to usage at a health club, gym or the like, may vary substantially from those incident to usage at an airline terminal, train station or the like. Still further, over time these percentages of usage may change substantially. New products may be introduced which may affect the sales percentages. The relative success of advertizing campaigns may influence these percentages. Health concerns, pricing and even political considerations may have a bearing.
Heretofore, as a practical matter, the apportionment of storage space assigned to particular commodities within a vending machine was largely permanently established at the time of manufacture. The structures of the stacks within the storage area of the vending machine defining the apportioned storage areas were, as a practical matter, permanent structures. While in some instances consideration was given to adjustability so as to have the capability of varying the apportionment of storage space, the conversion of any given vending machine was simply too time consuming to be practical. Accordingly, more commonly such vending machines were simply operated with less than desirable efficiency, or replaced by new machines having the apportionment desired.
In the prior art there was only a limited ability to acid to or vary the apportionment of internal storage space of the vending machines. The only way known in the prior art to acid to existing storage space for a given commodity, or to add a different commodity for vending was to add another column devoted thereto. This could only be achieved by, in effect, reducing the numbers of columns devoted to another commodity, or by increasing the size of the vending machine to add the space for the additional column. In this regard, the percentages of apportionment of space were limited to the assignment of columns within the vending machine among the commodities to be vended therefrom. Furthermore, each column required its individual vend mechanism. While a variety of attempts were made to use fewer vend mechanisms, such prior art efforts have largely been unsuccessful. In any case, the apportionment of storage space in prior art vending machines to correspond to sales inherently increased the cost of manufacturing such vending machines because of the increase in the numbers of columns and the vend mechanisms assigned thereto.
The prior art manufacture, operation, service and repair of vending machines is chronically subject to still other deficiencies. Because of the numbers of individual stacks defining discrete commodity storage areas within such vending machines, it has heretofore been necessary to employ individual vend mechanisms for each discrete storage area. This fact increases the frequency with which failure of the vend mechanisms within any given machine will occur; increases the labor required to service and/or repair a given vending machine; and increases the cost of manufacture of such vending machines. Similarly, the construction of prior art vend mechanisms themselves has, of necessity, been complex. In order to provide the desired strength and dependability of operation, prior art vend mechanisms are assembled using screws, bolts, weldments and the like requiring substantial manual labor to assemble at the factory and are similarly labor intensive for service and repair. It is thus frequently the case that a vend mechanism requiring service or repair may simply be removed and replaced with a new vend mechanism so as to avoid the cost incident to manual service or repair thereof.
Still further, the service and/or repair of prior art vending machines in the field is complicated by the fact that the discrete columns of vendable commodities are gravitionally storing numbers of the commodities. When it is necessary to remove a vend mechanism frown a given column of a prior art vending machine, consideration must be given to the commodities stored gravitationally thereabove. Removal of the vend mechanism releases the commodities which without provision therefore will gravitationally be discharged from the vending machine. Since such release would require reloading of the column after repair of the vend mechanism and, as importantly, would damage the commodities, it is the practice within the industry to attempt to lodge any available item within the column beneath the commodities to retain them against such gravitational release. This practice is not only inconvenient and less than reliable, but also may cause damage to the vending machine.
Therefore, it has long been known that it would be desirable to have an apparatus for vending work objects which is capable of achieving a significantly more precise apportionment of storage space to sales than has heretofore been achieved in the art; which is capable of rapid and yet precise assembly for such apportionment of the storage area therewithin; which can, if desired, rapidly and precisely be modified in the field to apportion the storage area to the capacities desired for the commodities to be vended; which reduces to a hitherto unachieved minimum the number of vend mechanisms required for a given vending machine; and which can be manufactured, operated, serviced and repaired with a facility and dependability not heretofore achieved in the art.